What the Eyes Do Not See
by jeddarose
Summary: Lukecentric fic set sometime after Union. It is meant to been a light-hearted story. Luke undertakes an undercover mission investigating the use of slave labour. It should be simple, all he has to do is get arrested, get the evidence and escape...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not mine, don't sue.

Spoilers: This is set shortly after Luke and Mara's wedding but is pretty much standalone, there are one or two references here and there but nothing major, this is meant to be fun.

What the Eyes Do Not See

It was a time of relative peace, one of the first Luke had known. As it was there was a lot of things to do. Too many people were trying to take advantage and he was out to deal with some of them. Luke would much rather have been back home with Mara, but there was always work for a Jedi to do. Far too much work; and far too few Jedi. Mara had been away last month so this time it was his turn.

A survivor of the Colrax Mining Agency had reported to Intelligence last week and shortly afterwards had been found murdered. From Reese's report it seemed that the CMA had been using slave labour to carry out their ore extraction. People had been going missing all over the Pyrad cluster and it seemed that those same people were turning up in Colrax's mines. Luke was on a fact finding mission to prove that innocent people were ending up in the mines; that was the important point as forced labour wasn't illegal in the Pyrad Cluster; and Colrax claimed its mines were worked by prisoners. Of course, prison records could be faked particularly if someone in authority was on Colrax's side. It had been suggested that the Wraiths investigate but they were all ready on assignment so he had been asked.

Luke was on a transport ship that would drop him on Pyrad Prime, it was his third transport in as many days, setting up the drifter he was supposed to be. He had tinted his hair a couple of shades darker so it was a definite brown and was letting his beard grow. He was clad in scruffy well-worn coveralls that had probably once been grey but had collected so many stains that it was impossible to tell. That was the extent of his physical disguise, the rest he was covering with a Force illusion. In a way he was lucky, he might be one of the most famous people in the galaxy but he still often went unrecognised. People had a job equating 'Luke Skywalker the Legend' with 'Luke Skywalker the person' particularly when they weren't expecting to see him.

The transport landed and Luke disembarked, on first glance the Pyrad Prime spaceport looked like any other across the galaxy; but something was tripping his danger sense. I wasn't a specific threat but a general background ominous feeling. He took his meagre luggage and found a cheap hotel on the edge of the industrial district. He answered the receptionist's questions with a yawn. Yes, he had just arrived. No, he didn't know how long he was going to stay; and no, he didn't know anyone on Pyrad Prime. He went to his room, it was spartan but pretty much clean; it was certainly not the worst place he had ever stayed. He dropped his bag on the bed and sat down on the floor to meditate. He hadn't had a full night's sleep since he had left home and he certainly didn't expect to get one tonight.

A couple of hours later Luke wandered out into the bustle of the city. It was time to play the drifter. He had set himself up as the perfect candidate to go missing now all he had to do was wait.

It was just after midnight on Luke's second full day on Pyrad Prime when he got noticed. The background sense of dread had not faded but he had got very good at ignoring it. After all, he all ready knew that this wasn't the healthiest planet to spend time on. Luke had just left one bar and was heading for another when they showed up. Both the bars and the area around them was filled with people who were 'just passing through', just the sort of people no one would miss if they disappeared suddenly. There were also the business people out to make a fast credit at the expense of the unwary traveler and, naturally, there were the security personnel out to protect the business people from the not so unwary travelers.

The first sign of trouble Luke had was a spike in his danger sense; he slowed down slightly and was completely unsurprised when a few strides later he heard the footsteps and then breathing of two individuals who were approaching from behind. He carried on walking. A few more steps later a heavy hand landed on his shoulder and spun him round.


	2. Chapter 2

"Can't have visitors wandering around drunk," the one who had his hand on Luke's shoulder said. Luke gave them both the visual once over but it wasn't really necessary he had seen their kind so many times before. Both wore the uniform of Pyrad Constabulary; they were both taller and bulkier than him and gave every indication that they had been hired for their muscle rather than, say, their intelligence. Both also had a blaster and a shock baton hanging from their belts. The one who hadn't spoken had a hand resting on the shock baton. He smiled, showing a set of uneven teeth.

"Of course we can't. Drunks in the street make the place look untidy," the constable with the smile and the uneven teeth said. He seemed to be the one in charge. He turned and spoke to Luke "You are under arrest on a charge of public drunkenness." Luke forced down a smile, so far his plan was working perfectly. He might have been in several bars so far this evening and had worked his way through several fairly strong drinks but he wasn't drunk. In fact he wasn't even acting drunk. He was, however, alone and in the bad part of town. The constable who had turned him round and still had a hand clamped on to his shoulder surged forward with his other hand knotted into a fist with a vicious punch aimed at Luke's midsection. Luke sidestepped the blow shrugging off the restraining hand as if it were nothing. He turned slightly as he watched the now completely off-balance constable stagger past him. In his peripheral vision Luke noted that the other constable, clearly relishing the opportunity, had drawn his shock baton. The Jedi was not surprised when the sparking baton was jammed into the middle of his back. Luke's vision dimmed slightly as he collapsed to his knees.

"We can't have people resisting arrest," the constable with in charge said. Luke pushed the pain away and drew on the Force to draw the energy out of the baton. It was a skill he had been practicing with Corran. The baton stopped sparking but the guards hadn't noticed; they were too busy waiting for him to pass out. Luke obliged them by falling forward to the pavement. He was not unconscious however. The two constables searched him; they were looking to remove any valuables or money that their victim had for their own benefit as well as confiscate any weapons he might be carryings. It did not tax Luke's skills to ensure that his lightsabre, strapped to his left leg and hidden by his baggy coveralls, went unnoticed. Luke did not resist when the two constables dragged him to a waiting hover-van. Then they clamped his wrists behind his back with a pair of stun cuffs and then loaded him into the back where a few other victims lay, all similarly restrained and unconscious.

"I look forward to talking to you when you sober up," the officer who'd tried to punch him said as the door closed. The other officer laughed.

There was a vid camera in the back of the van so Luke stayed where they had dumped him. He seemed to be the last on this trip as when the van stopped the doors were opened and the five people within were dragged out and taken to separate cells at headquarters. Luke 'came round' a short time later. It would not be long now.

"Oi, Flin. One of yours is awake. Shall I deal with 'im?" the warden bellowed. The response came back as an affirmative and the warden, who was around Luke's height but roughly twice as broad waddled over to unlock the cell door. Luke was dragged out of the cell and told that he was being charged with resisting arrest as well as public drunkenness. Luke stifled a laugh. He knew Han would have a lot of fun with that when they met up again. The warden continued informing Luke that the penalty for these crimes was going to be five months hard labour. Was there anyone he wanted to contact? Luke just shook his head and tried to look hungover, although he guessed he needn't have bothered.

Now it was a simple choice; leave before anything more nasty happened; or follow the trail through, see where it ended up and try to catch up with whoever was in charge. No choice really. This obviously went a long way up as all the staff here; four constables and the bloated warden; were involved and none of them felt in any danger of being caught. Possibly they were all too unimaginative to think about such things or, more likely in Luke's opinion, there were enough high ranking people involved that any trouble would be stopped before it started.

Luke was locked back in his cell to wait while the others came round and were given the same speech. The only variation was that two were not being charged with resisting arrest and so received a sentence of only three months. Luke paced somewhat restlessly and stretched out some cramped muscles. From what Reese had said Luke knew it was going to be a shuttle trip to the mine, , he was actually looking forward to that, it was one of the other mysteries about the Colrax Mining Agency – no one outside the CMA knew where their mine was. It was somewhere in the Pyrad Cluster but that was a large volume of space.

Luke did not have to wait too long, shock baton stuns tended to wear off quite quickly and it made sense to get the prisoners in and out of the headquarters building as quickly as possible so they were all still hungover and/or drunk and therefore confused on arrival. He was escorted from the building and put back into the hover-van. This time the stun cuffs were off and instead each prisoner had one wrested chained to the wall.

The journey to the space port was uneventful. Luke sat in silence and meditated. Most of the other captives were sitting nursing their doubtless aching heads; so his silence went unnoticed. He doubted it would be too long a trip but it made sense for him to try to catch up on his rest; he hadn't slept at all the previous night and had grabbed various moments of trance before that. He was no where near his record yet and he wasn't suffering any ill effects but it made sense to relax while he had the chance.

The hover-van eventually bounced to a halt at the spaceport and Luke and the others were bundled out. There were a couple of other hover-vans drawn up around the shuttle so obviously a few other prisoners were being transported. As he was prodded out of the van the stun cuffs were reapplied this time with his wrists in front of him. Luke watched as four people, all human, were prodded and stuffed on to the shuttle. He offered no resistance as he was led to join them.

The hatch clanged shut behind the last prisoner leaving the eight of them in near darkness. There were vague mutterings and threats from his cell mates; more than enough to convince Luke that most of them were pretty far out of it; although there did seem to be one maybe two genuine criminals in the mix. The ones with aching heads seemed to be enjoying the lack of light although at least one seemed to be mentally in orbit or possibly on the other side of the galaxy as so probably hadn't noticed. The muttering subsided as the shuttle took off. This left Luke in peace to consider the possibilities for the mine.

He had been told that the mine was kept in total darkness; not a particularly big problem for a Jedi but it would serve to keep things interesting. The very first thing he had ever been taught with the Force was how to block stinger bolts from a remote while blindfolded. He hadn't had much success back then, but he had had so much practice since then that eyesight didn't matter too much anymore. Sight was a human's primary sense but it was also the most easy to deceive, which was why the human Jedi had to spend so much time learning to live without their vision.

Reese had said that the guards were equipped with infra vision goggles and that a fair number of them seemed to be races that could see beyond the human visual range. Luke knew that his first task was to escape and explore. Some of Colax's higher up had to be at the mine site to oversee the operation and that should mean that there would be evidence of their illegal activity there too.

The shuttle landed at a small docking port, clearly only meant for the arrival of new members of the workforce. The prisoners were herded out of the shuttle and into a descending cage that took them down to the mine level. The prisoners had a group of rooms at the end of a tunnel from the lift's exit point. There was a mess hall surrounded by barrack rooms that slept around twenty in crammed together bunks. Luke was allocated a bunk and his stun cuffs were removed. Instead he was fitted with a wrist band tracker, he was also informed that there was a stun device in the cuff that would go off if it were tampered with in anyway and could also be triggered remotely if there were any problems. The new prisoners were given a meal which consisted of a parcel of pastry containing some bland protein and some unidentifiable vegetable; and then told to get some rest as their first shift began in six hours.

Luke lay on his bunk and closed his eyes with the full intention of getting some rest. He danger sense flared and his left hand flashed in front of his face in plenty of time to block an on coming fist. The fist belonged to one of the prisoners who had all ready been resident in this bunk room when Luke had arrived. He instantly twisted the trapped wrist into a lock that wouldn't hurt unless the owner was foolish enough to struggle. He then opened his eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

"Look, I don't want a fight. I just want to get some sleep." Luke let go of the guy's wrist. The man who had attacked him was an almost perfect fit for the stereotype of thug; he was relatively short and quite wide with arms that seemed too long for his body. His face and most of his visible skin was covered in a network of scars that put Luke's souvenir from Hoth quite in the shade. "Come on," Luke continued "I just want to be left alone." The thug spoke, there was a growl in his tone

"Now why would I want to do that, new boy?" Luke sighed internally, he had long ago come to terms with the fact that, physically at least, he would never look his age. The Force illusion he was using to change his appearance wasn't exactly helping as it probably took a few more years off his apparent age. Still the thug, who was probably only slightly older than Luke appeared to be, had intended the comment as an insult and Luke knew he needed to deal with him. There were very few people he could happily take being called 'boy' or 'kid' from and most off those had known him since he had genuinely qualified for the labels. He needed to be left alone while he was here and there was no way that would happen if he was at the bottom of the pecking order. He sighed audibly this time and got to his feet.

"You'll leave me alone because I want you to," Luke said. He wasn't threatening or filling his voice with a Force persuasion; there was no point. This guy might look the part but he was not a professional tough. This was the moment; everything was poised on a vibroshiv edge. The tension was getting thicker and thicker. The thug would have to act soon or lose face with the entire audience they had gathered. The thug swung a vicious punch at Luke's head, the Jedi dodged.

It was a while since Luke since Luke had been in a knock down, drag-out, no-holds-barred punch-up; maybe it had been as long as five months. The audience started to throw comment as Luke continued to dodge. He landed a couple of kicks at about half power and an elbow to the ribs at a similar strength. He knew he had to lose the fight, to win would mean taking the thug's place in the prison hierarchy and to do that would probably leave him even less time than being at the bottom of the order. He had to lose but in a way that meant no one else would challenge him. Luke had to lose by accident, a pure fluke… Now all he had to do was plan and execute an accident while not getting hit with a right cross that stood a fair chance of knocking him across the room.

Luke stretched out with the Force trying to find something that was on the verge of coming loose. The fight could not last too much longer as the thug was all ready starting to gasp for breath. Luke located a section of wall that was just beginning to crumble and allowed the thug to drive him back towards it.

Luke landed a punch kick combination and settled with his back to the wall. Just over a metre above his head was nestled a lump of rock that would not take much to pry loose. The thug launched another couple of punches; Luke dodged, threw another punch of his own and put his plan into operation.

He dodged another kick and slammed back into the wall, at the same time he used the Force to pull the rock loose and send it plummeting towards his own head. He controlled the fall so there was just enough energy to make a nice 'thunk' as the rock landed. Luke dropped, seemingly unconscious. The thug looked at his fallen opponent for a moment and then dropped to his knees gasping and trying desperately to suck in oxygen, he had gotten lucky. The newbie was a tough one.

After the fight was over the rest of the prisoners drifted back to their bunks. The entertainment was over, for now anyway and sleep was a precious commodity in the blackness of the mines. Luke got up off the floor. One of the other prisoners looked at him but no words were exchanged. A bump had formed and a thin trickle of dried blood was matting his brown hair. He had wanted it to look real, there was no serious damage done but he would have to block out a head ache for a while. He walked over to his bunk, lay down and rested as much as he could without letting his illusion slip.

Luke woke to the sound of a loudly wailing siren, his first thought was to grab for his helmet and scramble for his X-Wing. That impulse faded before he had opened his eyes; it wasn't the scramble alarm. In fact he hadn't heard that alarm in a while probably about a year. This alarm was the signal for the shift change. Luke got off his bunk and joined the shuffling line of prisoners; he noted that the thud who had attacked him earlier was now keeping a more than respectful distance. They were each handed another pasty and then escorted into the mine. There was one guard for each group of five prisoners; Luke was still with the group he had arrived with. They had an apparently human guard with a set of infra vision goggles and a bad attitude. They were ordered to line up, place one hand on the shoulder of the man ahead and they were then led into the mine. The guard stopped.

"We are two metres from the rock face here; a blast has gone off and the rubble is piled in front of it. You lot are to pick up the rubble and load it into the cart. Luke looked around slowly, forcing his eyes to adjust to the darkness. There were some faint lights here and there, and there was a faint glow pod on each corner of the boxy, four wheeled truck. The rubble was stacked past knee high. Luke grabbed a fist sized rock and tossed it into the cart. It landed with a satisfying clang.

There was silence except for irregular thuds and clangs for a while. Luke looked around slowly, there was only one way to reach this place but the tunnel did branch a little way back towards the barrack room. Luke continued to toss rocks into the truck while planning his escape; he'd gotten lucky on his first trip into the mine. There was another path out of here. He'd been worried that he'd be taken to a complete dead end.

The first thing he had to do was take care of the cuff round his left wrist. He focused the Force on it and examined the mechanism. It was rigged to set off a stun bolt if anyone tampered with the outer casing, that wasn't a problem for someone who could get at the circuitry without opening the casing. Luke was by no means an expert on electronics but he'd had to do enough on-the-fly repairs over the years that he knew more than most. He focused on two small wires and carefully pulled the metal apart. It did not take long for him to completely sever the connections of the stun mechanism.

Luke watched the guard carefully; the man was clearly bored and ripe for distraction. He reached out with the Force and picked up a rock about the size of his fist. He lifted it silently and took it off into the shadows, circling it round behind the guard. Luke started inching further into the shadows himself. The guard spun round to glare at him.

"Get back to work. Those rocks won't move themselves". Luke nodded slowly and leaned forward equally slowly; at the same moment he propelled the rock into the back of the guard's helmet. It made a resounding thud; the guard staggered forward a step then spun round yelling at the other prisoners and searching for the one who had attacked him.

Luke slipped quickly and silently into the shadow. He was far down the side passage before the guard noticed his absence. He could hear the man cursing as he continued to run. The guard had quite a repertoire.

Most people would have difficulty running at full speed across rubble strewn ground in pitch darkness; but Luke was not most people. He was making very good progress. He had to get to the staff area of the mine. The Force was giving him very clear direction as it was the only other concentration of people down here. He reached an area where there was a lot less rubble and the walls were rather better cut. It was obvious that the route Luke had used to get here was not the most used path: there wouldn't have been so much rubble around if it had been in regular use.

He came to a keypad locked door. There was a light here and two other corridors met at this point. Luke glanced down both and pleased to see that he was alone. He put his had over the keypad and concentrated. Then he entered the access code. The door slid open with a slight hiss and Luke slipped through. There was silence in the corridor beyond the door, Luke closed his eyes and listened. There were three people in a room further down the corridor and more on the floors above and below. Luke walked slowly down the corridor. It was strange, there were no guards here and he had not noticed any other forms of security. Obviously they felt secure. That meant they were ripe for a good shake up, and he was just the Jedi to do it.

It had been a while since he had broken in to a restricted area; in fact it was probably, more than three months now. Luke walked quietly down the corridor. It did not seem likely that any of the guards would leave their room and bother him, he was almost disappointed. He reached the door at the end of the corridor, opened it, and walked through. He started up the stairs; it was at the top of the first flight that Luke's luck changed.


	4. Chapter 4

A guard dressed in a black jumpsuit but without helmet or goggles came through the door from the floor above. He started to say something but his words were lost in an explosive out-rush of air as Luke's fist sunk into his stomach. As the man doubled over Luke pressed a nerve bundle and knocked him out. He managed to catch the man before he fell down the stairs. Luke tucked the man out of sight in one of the empty rooms on the floor he had come in through and then headed back up the stairs; he bypassed the next floor entirely and continued to climb. Six floors later windows appeared in the stairwell looking out on to a barren seemingly airless world and the blackness of space beyond. It seemed that the mine was on an asteroid or rocky moon. It also seemed to Luke that the top people were likely to be in the top of the building.

Luke continued up the stairs, he noted that the walls had changed to a soft blue colour. Either the builders had run out of white paint by this stage or the people who used these stairs had different requirements to those below. He pushed the door at the top open and looked out into the corridor beyond, it was the same width and length as the one he had come in along but that was all they shared. This corridor was wood paneled; he was quite clearly in the right place.

Luke walked to the first door on the left of the corridor. There was no one in the room beyond. He tried the door. It was locked. He slipped his lightsaber out of his coveralls lit the yellow-green blade and carefully cut around the lock. He put the lightsaber away and gave the lock a sharp tap with the heel of his hand. The lock dropped through its own hole and landed with a thud on the floor. Luke pushed the door open and went into the room. It seemed to be some sort of office. He opened drawers at random. There were a few notes on scraps of paper and flimsy which he read quickly; but there was nothing incriminating there. He gathered up all the data crystals he could find and tucked them into one of the pockets of his coverall. There was no guarantee that any of these would have anything more on so he had to get more.

Luke left the room, pulled the door closed, and moved on. There was only one more unoccupied room on this floor; Luke opened the door with aid of his lightsaber lockpick. There was nothing at all of use in this room, so that left just the occupied ones. He knew he would have to move quickly if he wanted to get things done before a shift change. He walked silently down the corridor, there were five further rooms; three of which had one person in as far as the Force was telling him, the other two rooms had three people in each. It was therefore a simple choice, door one or door two.

Luke approached the first of the two doors, it wasn't locked and the people beyond seemed to be relatively alert. Luke tucked his lightsaber back into his coveralls. All the better to confuse, if they didn't know quite who they were dealing with it would make things easier. Luke gave the lock a swift kick which broke the catch, he ran through the door as it swung open.

There were three technicians in the room, one stared at Luke slack jawed. Luke smiled and ran past him into the room. A dark-haired male technician was reaching for a weapon; he was the most dangerous of the three. Luke knocked him out. Then he moved on the technician who wasn't gaping in shock. The second unconscious body hit the floor just as the final one of three started moving. Luke, needless to say, was faster. His fist connected with the man's jaw just before he reached an alarm panel, he too slumped to the floor. Luke stepped over the unconscious form and set to work on the computers. He was no expert in computers, certainly not in Mara's league, but he could get by. These systems were not complicated and he soon found records that were exactly what he needed: prison transfer data and more incriminatingly, financial transfer data. Luke quickly downloaded all the files on to a datacrystal. He put the crystal into his pocket with the crystals he had taken earlier. Now he had the evidence he needed, it was time to get out.

One of the three people on the floor groaned a bit; it was definitely time to get out. He left the room and pulled the door closed. He headed for the stairs. Luke reached the floor he had arrived through without incident, but halfway down that corridor a guard came out of one of the rooms. She saw Luke and shouted. Luke jabbed an open palm into the woman's chest sending her staggering back into the room and knocking her into the guard behind her and sending both of them to the floor.

Luke broke into a run and got to the door just as the alarm was tripped. He ran. Outside the door he had a moment to choose he path before the guards came out behind him. He headed for the shuttlebay access, his grey jumpsuit faded into the darkness but he knew that wouldn't hide him from the guards in their infra vision goggles. Luke could hear the sounds of guards behind him. He ran as fast as he could; given the pitch darkness and the uneven footing. He turned another corner and decided that this was the point to bring the pursuit to an end. He pulled out his lightsaber and held it ready but unignited as the guards approached. They were about to find out that it was a Jedi that they hunted.

The guards came round the corner and saw that their quarry was in front of them. It seemed as if he were just standing there, there was a moment of confusion and then, as one, the guards drew their blasters and started firing.

Luke could honestly say that of all the dozens of blaster bolts that rushed towards him in the ensuing minutes he only saw the first one. Of course, with the brightness in the surrounding darkness he went on seeing the after images for quite a while thereafter. He ignited his lightsaber as the first bolt sped towards him. He intercepted the bolt with his blade and the bolt bounced off into the wall.

He continued to deflect the blaster bolts, one or three of them found new homes amongst the shooters. Luke directed most of the rest into the roof. Luke laughed. This, despite the danger, was the most fun he had had in a while. The guards were starting to back up, they seemed to have realised how much trouble they were in.

The tunnel roof eventually gave up struggling against the continuous bombardment of blaster bolts that Luke was directing against it. The sound filled the tunnel and dust circled. Luke stepped back a few paces to avoid the falling rocks. He coughed once and then waited for the dust to settle. The fall had blocked the tunnel. Luke closed his lightsaber down and turned to head down the passageway passing several cross tunnels on the way. This was the way to the main landing bay, he was sure of that; he just wasn't sure how far away it was.

The landing bay was in a large cave with a forcefield across the entrance. Most of the cavern was in darkness, the major light source was the small lights on the ore trucks although some light was coming in through the forcefield. Relaxing further into the Force Luke extended his senses to include the whole cave. It was clearly one of the places where mining had started and was now a hub. Several further tunnels branched away from the bay. There were three groups of people within the bay. One was a pair of guards supervising a dozen prisoners who were loading full trucks on to a hauler. The other two groups of people were guards on patrol. It seemed as if all was not well in the mine. Strange that.

Other than the hauler; there was a pair of small transport shuttles in the bay. It looked like leaving this particular rock behind would not be too difficult. Luke ducked back round a corner as a patrol passed the opening to the tunnel he was standing in. When the patrol had passed by Luke slipped silently into the cave, there wasn't enough cover for him to simply walk to the shuttles unseen, but there was more than one way for a Jedi to pass unnoticed. He kept a watch on the minds of all the people who might notice him, if anyone showed an undue interest in his current location then he carefully nudged their perception away from himself. It was certainly possible for him to keep a number of people from noticing him but it was by no means easy. He ducked down behind a stack of crates near the shuttles; it was now only a very short sprint to the closest shuttle. Luke took a deep breath and gentle drew his perceptions back to himself. The walk to his current hiding place had taken it out of him; he wasn't drained but he was starting to feel the affects of continually drawing on the Force. He relaxed and let the tiredness flow away from him. This hiding place wasn't bad as hiding places went but he couldn't stay here too long; so he just didn't have time to be tired at the moment.

Luke looked around the bay, he'd gotten lucky again. One of the shuttles had its hatch open and it seemed ready to go. He took another deep breath, extended his perceptions again, stood up and ran. It took him ten paces to make it to the shuttle's side and another two to make it one board He carefully closed the hatch and settled at the controls, taking a few seconds to relax as he did so. The cockpit was larger and less complicated than his X-Wing's. There were no weapons on the shuttle but he wasn't planning on shooting his way out anyway.

He had got this far without being noticed but he knew that as soon as he fired up the engines all hell would break loose. He intended to hit space before anyone had a chance to launch after him. When he was clear he could send a message to Alliance Intelligence and skip to hyperspace. He interrogated the computer and finally found out where he was: a major asteroid two systems over from Pyrad Prime. He set the hyperdrive computer to calculate the quickest route to the nearest Alliance Base. He didn't want to hang about waiting for the computer to do its thing while being chased. The computer finally beeped to say the route had been calculated.

Luke to another deep breath and focused on the forcefield, it was tuned to let large fast objects emitting the correct transponder code through while keeping air molecules and people contained. He flicked the switch to activate the drives and sank into the Force. Just as the drives lit he took off and pushing the drives past maximum headed for space. He could sense the chaos unfolding behind him but he pushed it away from his mind as it took most of his concentration to fly like this. He sent the message and then spun the ship around the asteroid to head for clear space. He had to get clear before kicking the hyperdrive in.

There were ships launched behind him, the other shuttle and a couple of other ships although he didn't see where they came from. It didn't matter; they weren't going to catch him. He was flying at 115 percent of the ship's rated maximum, it would only take another couple of seconds before he got somewhere he could cut the hyperdrive in. 2…1…Luke flicked the switched and the stars stretched.

This mission was over and it was time to head for home. Time to be with his family. Time to rest and recuperate at least until the next time he was needed.


End file.
